In October 2009 a group of protesters interrupted NDP leader Jack Layton right at the moment he was about to begin making a statement on climate change. The man who started the interruption was Dave Vasey, the former leader of Occupy Toronto, and one of the elite group of Canadian activists who share the same tattoo saying “Love Is The Movement”. Vasey was joined by fellow tattoo wearer Chelsea Flook, the former leader of Occupy Edmonton, and an angry anti-police protester who helped organize the December 2013 anti-cop protest in Toronto with Vasey where they burned an effigy of a pig.
There was speculation in the media that the event was a trick by the NDP. This was partially driven by the fact that one of the people who spoke to the media on the activist’s side was Joe Cressy, an NDP strategist who now sits in Olivia Chow’s former seat in Toronto city council. Cressy denied this, saying that he wasn’t “an NDP activist”- many were skeptical about his claim.
A similar protest happened in on Thursday. It wasn’t in Parliament, but on the campaign trail in Winnipeg- that said, it followed the same pattern. Adding to the coincidence, the man who led the heckling is close friends with and wears the exact same tattoo as the people who interrupted Layton. Oh yes, and he’s no stranger to Thomas Mulcair- the two met in New Brunswick back in February.